Red and Black
by siqwithaQ
Summary: After a particularly disfavourable incident, Ace found himself transferred to an infamous school whose students straddled the line between not as bad as and worse than the rumours claimed. He felt himself falling into step with them a little too quickly — maybe his new friends were a bad influence on him. Maybe it was fate. {Acelu}


A/N: Four months and 13K+ words worth of work. Holy shit you guys. This is officially the longest single-chapter thing I've ever written, beating out my previously record (a 9.4K OPxHP crossover) by 3.6K. I'm monumentally excited by this. Also, my first attempt at incorporating romance, so you guys will have to tell me whether it's believable or not.

**Warning:** Contains mature subject matter, including course language, death, underage sex, criminal behaviour in adolescents, implications of past sexual assault as well as attempted suicide and capital punishment in schools, and you know what, I'm going to stop thinking about this before I do a double take and go 'What the hell did I write anyhow?'

(By the way, to those readers out there waiting for an update on my chapter stories, I'd like to apologise, as I spilled water on my laptop keyboard and it took forever to get fixed, and when I get it back my muse goes 'Hey, remember that oneshot absolutely _no one_ is waiting on? I wanna work on that!' Completely my fault, sorry. I'll be getting to those next. Happy reading!)

— — — —

"I will not stand for such — such — such _**unspeakable**_ behaviour in my school!" the principal roared.

Ace flinched. Really, did the man have to be so damn _loud_? It's not like it had been **that** bad—

"You may have a record of misdemeanours, but _this_, this is abominable, deplorable, reprehensible…!"

—It was probably a lot worse.

As the principal continued pacing and listing off various synonyms for "really god damn bad," Ace snuck a cursory glance out the window, wishing he were anywhere but here.

He hated this room. The principal's office was meant to be non-intimidating, but only succeeded in being straining and unpleasant. The rug was round and large yet only covered half the floor, displaying an eye burning, faded oriental pattern. He never understood that rug. Why was it round? The walls were square. Horrible walls they were, too. Pastel blue with mahogany shelves that housed row after row of books and books and books and books and oh! More books.

Ace sat in the single wooden chair that was directly in the centre of the room; across from him was the principal's desk. It was made of cherry wood and stacked with papers; behind it was the principal's chair, all made of leather and comfy looking, _mocking_ him because he had to sit on that horridly uncomfortable wooden thing. And behind that the principal was — no, hang on, when did he stop pacing? He was sitting in the leather spinny chair now, staring at Ace with disturbing intensity.

"Mr. Portgas," he said gravely, "I hope you realize the severity of the situation."

"…Yes, sir. I do."

"And you acknowledge the atrocity of your deeds," the man continued.

"But I—"

"No buts!" he scolded. "This is not an arguable matter, Mr. Portgas. You understand that."

"Yes, sir." Ace was beginning to feel dirty, like a Yes-Man. How he wished for the chance to object and say 'no.'

"And so you know what must be done about this. For a student of mine to even _consider_ such a thing…" He shook his head. "Unthinkable."

"But sir—"

"Plainly outrageous! I hope you're ashamed of the scandal you've caused. Mothers will be wary to send their children to my school for years, to think we'd churned out a malfeasant such as you," the man began muttering towards the end.

Ace finally got tired of sitting there and listening to the principal debase him into some kind of _criminal_. Anxious to get this whole ordeal over and done with, he asked, "So are you just gonna rant, or am I getting detention or what?"

"Oh no," he said. "An incident such as this merits a _much_ harsher reaction than the usual means of punishment. You've proven to me that we cannot hope to get you back on track with your peers to becoming a functional member of society with our own methods. Which is why you're being transferred."

"I'm _**What?**_ Where?"

The principal smiled a smile of absolute revulsion.

"To the I.D.I.D."

— — — —

"So…" he trailed off, glancing at the surly policeman from the corner of his eye. "Why am I being driven in a cop car?"

Smoker gave him an annoyed look. "Transportation in a registered police vehicle is compulsory for entrance to the I.D.I.D."

"That's nice. They have you memorise that in cop school?" Ace asked casually. "That's a lot of big words for a quiet fellah like you."

"Just shut up, will you. I wasn't told what you did, but you're going to the I.D.I.D for it..."

"…So it must be awful, right?" he finished. "Seems to be everybody's logic these days."

Ace spared a brief look at the I.D.I.D, more commonly just called the Institute, looming ahead. The initials stood for 'Impel Down Institute for Delinquents,' which was very much an understatement of its actual purpose. The students here weren't just delinquents, they were _felons_. All of them had been sent here for committing some crime. But not Ace.

Not technically. They had stopped him first.

Still, that constituted no crime committed. So _why_ was he now enrolled at the fucking Institute? He shouldn't have to be compared to criminals like them.

The car passed through the gate of the tall walls that kept the Institute hidden from the world's eyes. They were grey, just like everything else about this so-called school. The buildings were grey, the sky was grey, the ground was grey—

His thoughts were cut off as the car rolled to a stop in front of one of the buildings. Smoker got out immediately in what seemed to be a practiced motion, going to grab Ace's bags from the back seat. Ace himself sat still in his seat for a minute longer to avoid setting foot on the Institute grounds.

The Institute itself claimed to try to 'rehabilitate' its 'students' into good, productive Samaritans. But everybody knew the truth, no matter that it was never said it out loud.

Once you were there, there was no way out.

"Good evening," a voice called from outside the car. Ace looked over to see the shortest man he'd ever seen exiting the building they had parked in front of. The man addressed to Smoker, "I see that is the new student?"

Smoker simply nodded and dropped the suitcases roughly on the ground. "Can I go now?"

"Of course."

Merely a second later, Smoker's presence was beside him again, holding the door open. "Get out of here, kid. This is your school—" _Prison_ "—now."

Reluctantly sliding out the vehicle, Ace sent the short man the most spiteful glare he could muster. The man didn't even flinch.

"I am Mr. Saldeath," the man said instead. "Follow me."

Ace picked up his two suitcases and trailed after Mr. Saldeath bitterly. He slung one suitcase over his shoulder and let the other hang limply from his hand beside him. It kept bumping into his legs irritatingly as he walked.

As Mr. Saldeath led him down into one of the buildings and through its halls, Ace felt eyes on his back. He glanced over his shoulder to see a blond young man, maybe about a year younger than himself, snuffing a cigarette out against the wall as he watched Ace go by.

Suddenly, two doors slid closed in front of his eyes and obscured his vision of the guy. It took him a second to figure out Mr. Saldeath had led him into an elevator.

"You will be in room number 613," Mr. Saldeath informed. "You'll be sharing this room with three other boys your age."

The man pressed something that was near the door and the elevator lurched into movement. The number six lit up on the pad of buttons.

The elevator was as grey as everything else. The only difference was that the floor was a slightly darker shade of grey than the walls, and the number pad was outlined in black. Ace had never particularly liked elevators. The rocking movements made him feel sick to the stomach and as if the lift would fail and plummet at any second. This one was even worse, because now the elevator was mind-numbingly boring at the same time.

The lift came to a harsher stop than was usual of most elevators, though he guessed it was probably usual for this one. The doors rolled open to reveal a grey hallway full of grey doors, which was great because Ace was really starting to like grey, it was such a pretty colour and the amount of it was easy on the eyes, too, and that was a complete and total lie because Ace despised grey more and more with each passing second.

He followed Mr. Saldeath down the hallway, holding his breath to avoid breathing in the massive amounts of dust that they were kicking up as they went. He tried to keep track of the door numbers, but quickly gave up when he realized that the doors weren't numbered in any particular order. They zigzagged from 632 to 611 to July to 674.

Some of the doors were even labelled with the names of months.

After they passed a door named September, they finally found door 613. Mr. Saldeath motioned for him to open the door, which was very much unfair because Ace was carrying two suitcases, one in each hand, and Mr. Saldeath was carrying exactly zero. Nonetheless, Ace propped one of his grips against the wall and pulled the door open.

It wasn't grey, this room, surprisingly, though its actual colour was pretty close. The entire room was a dark, steely blue, though it was hard to tell with the lights off. The only light source came from the single window, which was protected with metal bars and partially blocked by the sparse branches of a tree outside. The odd angle of the sun behind the clouds as the winter day met its early demise cast an elongated lattice of shadows against the floor. As Ace's eyes adjusted to the dull light he noticed two sets of bunk beds in the room; three of the beds were unkempt and obviously occupied, while the fourth seemed to have been used for the dumping of trash.

"There is a uniform for you in the wardrobe, and your schedule is on the bedside counter." Mr. Saldeath gestured to an unseen corner of the room, where presumably the wardrobe was hiding behind the shadows. "Your classes begin tomorrow. I suggest you be prepared."

And with that the door shut.

— — — —

The next day had begun with meeting his new roommates (who were surprised to find a stranger sleeping in their room without warning, but, quote, "shit happens," which didn't make Ace any less wary about going to this school if that was a normal thing here) and getting into his uniform. It was a boring uniform, but at least it wasn't completely grey. The pants were, but the long-sleeve polo shirt that went with it was white and the vest was dark blue.

His morning classes had passed without incident (pertaining to himself, anyway, his classmates on the other hand — he would never be able to look at a pillowcase the same way again) and now he was wondering what he was going to have for lunch, because really, that's what you do when you're sitting in the cafeteria with no idea where your food is coming from or even if you're going to get any. He couldn't tell where the food line was because there were random groupings of people standing around for whatever reason, he didn't really care to find out and be forced to think differently of another household object.

He _had_ tried finding out what one such group of people was surrounding, hoping it was food, but it turned out the were gathering around an explosive argument between his roommate — the green-haired one, Zoro — and the blond guy that had been watching him yesterday. He had quickly bailed at that point and was now sitting at an empty table, sifting through his bag and wishing he had brought a candy bar or something.

"New kid!" an unfamiliar voice cheered unexpectedly.

Ace looked up just in time to see a red-haired girl taking a seat across from him imperiously, surveying him discretely and with subtle derision. His mind was having a difficult job in connecting the jejune sounding exclamation to her mature demeanour when a coal-haired boy claimed the seat to his right. By the look of him, as the boy settled into a cross-legged position on his chair, he was much more likely to have been the one who yelled than she was.

He was proven right when the boy sing-songed, "New kid~" in exactly the same puerile voice as before. All of a sudden, Ace was aware that the kid had draped an arm over his shoulders and seriously gave thought to punching his lights out for disrespecting the notion of personal space. But then again, he was already branded as a criminal, so why bother getting himself into more trouble?

If they even penalised fighting at the Institute, that is. No one seemed to be stopping Zoro and the blond guy over there.

"So," the girl began, "you're new."

"Yes," Ace responded absently, half his attention focused on the boy who was still uncomfortably close and chanting 'new kid, new kid' incessantly. "Is that a big deal? Everyone I've met so far seems pretty indifferent about it."

She shook her head. "It's not particularly big news, really. Although we, ourselves, are partial to keeping track of our fellow students." Something about this felt like a rehearsed speech. "Plus, Luffy—" She indicated to the ink-haired boy. "—wanted to meet you. We're just going to ask you a few questions, okay?"

And with that, she smiled, pulling a piece of paper out from her pocket and clicking a pen loudly. Ace couldn't help but think that smile was the most intimidating thing he'd seen at this school yet.

"Name?"

"Portgas D Ace."

"Age?"

"Young."

"Specifically."

"Teenaged."

"In years."

"Seventeen."

"Floor?"

"What?"

"Floor," she repeated. "Which Floor is your room on?"

"Oh. Floor Six."

"Any roommates?"

"Yes, three."

"Favourite colour?" Luffy asked.

Ace blinked. "Err… Orange?"

A very, very _unique_ laugh twisted from Luffy's tongue. "Hey, Nami, your hair's his favourite. I bet he—"

"Just stop now, Luffy." Nami rolled her eyes. She said to Ace, "Give me your schedule."

"My schedule?" he asked densely. "Why do you want my schedule?"

"Here it is!" Luffy announced. Ace almost punched him again when he realised he had been going through his pack. "He's got his _Sessions_ after lunch."

"Yeah, I was wondering about that. What does it mean by 'Sessions'?" Ace inquired. When he had seen the two period block of something called simply 'Sessions' on his schedule, he had had questions that no one was around to answer.

"Well, it's a little like therapy," Nami likened, "Except—"

"Except it's more like being served a steaming plate of dog crap with sprinkles," Luffy finished for her, and Ace almost laughed. He really would have, if only Nami hadn't nodded sagely at his words.

"Pretty much, the whole process is basically bullshit. You go in, talk to the counsellor they give you, and leave. Simple, and boring. It doesn't do you any good at all," she explained. "They'll judge which counsellor to start you with by the nature of your 'infraction,' but most students get transferred to a different counsellor after a while."

"Yeah!" Luffy nodded so much Ace half thought his head was going to fly off his neck. "They switch me around so many times it gets confusing. Once, I was late, so I ran all the way to Miss Sadi's room, when I was supposed to go to Ms Nico's, which is all the way on the other side of the building!"

"They're both counsellors, are they?"

"Yup. Ms Nico's nice, but you don't want to be stuck with Miss Sadi." Luffy shuddered exaggeratedly. "Miss Sadi molests people."

Ace wasn't going to ask about that. He did not want to know, and he was **definitely **_not_ going to ask.

"Besides that," Nami cleared her throat, "there are a couple more things you should know about this place."

He was a little taken aback by her grave tone. "And those would be?"

"One, you never, _never_ talk about the reasons you were sent here. You never bring it up, nobody asks you, and if they do, you don't answer. Likewise, you don't ask anyone else, either." Ace nodded; he could understand that. "And two, there are two kinds of people who go here. There are the ones who break—"

"And then there's us," Luffy concluded cheerfully. "Which are you?"

Ace turned the question over in his head. He honestly was unsure. Though he thought himself fairly strong-willed, he had no good ideas of the methods the Institute would use to cow him. When it came down to it, could this place be able to push him to his breaking point? And so a single question sparked frothing curiosity.

"What about," he whispered idly, almost to himself. "What about the people who come already broken?"

They only smiled.

"Well, lunch is almost over," Nami announced, standing.

Luffy stood with her. "See you, new kid!"

"We have classes to get to."

"You look really hungry," he noted randomly, with some surprise. "Haven't you eaten?"

She rolled her eyes at him. Ace got the feeling she did that a lot. "Is food all you think about?"

"Well, he's right. I actually haven't eaten," Ace answered.

"What!" Luffy exclaimed. "That's crazy! Hold on a sec…" He went rummaging through Nami's bag this time. She didn't seem to care. "Here."

Ace caught the object thrown at him with some measure of bewilderment. "A… sandwich?"

"Uh huh. No one should have to starve!" Luffy declared with conviction as he and Nami weaved themselves into the crowd filing out the doors.

"Wait!"

They were already gone.

— — — —

As it turned out, the office he had his Sessions in was on the top floor of the building, as opposed to the cafeteria, which was on the ground floor. He had had to run all the way through the halls and up the stairs, trying to ignore his mind boggling at how the sleep room building had an elevator while the classroom buildings had only stairs. Meanwhile he took the chance to try to acquaint himself with as much of the building as he saw, which wasn't easy, considering all of it was an eye-gouging shade of grey.

When he finally arrived, he was panting from exertion and the sandwich he had been given was held between his teeth, unfinished. The man sitting behind the desk raised an eyebrow at his condition but motioned for him to sit nonetheless. Ace let his legs give out under him as he dropped onto the soft couch and exhaled in relief. Before the man got a chance to ask, he explained, "I had some trouble figuring out the cafeteria, so I didn't get much of a chance to eat and had to rush here."

He received a nod in return. "Not a problem, it takes a lot of people quite a while to get used to things here. Speaking of, do you have any idea what Sessions are like?"

"Kinda. I was told they were a little like therapy, but more like dog shit with sprinkles," he answered bluntly, just to find out how the man would react. Surprisingly, he chuckled, and Ace was inwardly pleased he got such an agreeable person.

"Yeah, I'd like to tell you that's the gist of it, but I don't feel like losing my job today. I hate these as much as the next guy," the man told him conspiratorially. "And I know this part sucks, but I want to get the boring part out of the way first, if that's okay with you."

Ace had no idea what part he was talking about but agreed anyway. "Sure, fine with me, Mister…?"

"Just call me Marco, thanks. 'Mr Phoenix' would make me feel old." Marco pulled a clipboard out from a drawer in his desk and took a pen from a cup on his desk that was filled with writing utensils. He cleared his throat and read from the paper, "We, the Impel Down Institute for Delinquents, are partial to keeping record of all our students, and as such, we require all students complete the following examination."

Why did that sound so familiar?

"Relax, it's not as bad as it sounds," Marco reassured him when he saw the look on Ace's face. He must have mistaken Ace's strain to remember with anxiety of some kind. "I'm just going to ask you a few questions, okay?"

Oh. That's where. He had heard it barely twenty minutes ago, when Nami and Luffy questioned him in the cafeteria.

Ace found himself answering the questions easily. They were all the same questions he had already been asked, and he barely had to think to answer them. He was a little grateful to Nami for thinking to prepare him for this. He concentrated more on eating the sandwich in-between the questions.

"Infraction?"

"Orange," he answered readily. Marco gave him a strange glance and Ace realised what he had said wrong. "Oh, no, sorry. I thought you were going to ask something else."

"We get that a lot, actually." Marco blinked curiously. "I don't know why."

Ace backtracked to the question asked. Infraction? What had Nami said about that? Oh, that's right; don't answer anyone's questions about it. Did that extend to staff and counsellors? Or was it just other students? When Marco tried asking him again, he decided he'd rather be safe than sorry and kept his mouth shut.

"Not going to answer?" Ace shook his head. "Alright then." Marco stood up and walked over to a filing cabinet in the corner of the room, shuffling through it until he pulled out a manila folder. "I can just look it up in your file here if you're going to be like that."

Well, he tried. That's what counts, right?

Marco flipped open the folder to the front-page and scanned its contents. When he found what he was looking for, his eyes widened considerably and he gave an impressed little whistle. "I guess _that's_ why they put you with me."

Ace shifted nervously on the couch. Now that he knew it was supposedly a taboo subject among the students, he felt uneasy having someone know that about him.

"Anyway," Marco shook himself back into focus and put the folder down. "How was your first day here? It went okay, I hope."

And so he described his classes, what he thought of his teachers and classmates, his roommates, and even how all the grey was getting to him. Ace found that he actually liked talking to Marco. The man was friendly and often had a witty reply on the ready. He didn't really understand the earlier comparison to decorated canine faecal matter, but then again, Marco wasn't the only counsellor there was. Luffy did imply that some were better to have than others.

However, the Session _did_ have to end at some point. Luckily, he didn't have any more classes for the day, so all he had left to do was his homework and then he was free.

As free as he could be in a prison of a school like this.

— — — —

Ace decided. He _liked_ the library. It was quiet, so it was easy to work in, and it was easily the most colourful place he'd seen in the school yet, mostly because it was full of books. After all, book covers varied so much in colour and design, and it's not like they could go to the publishers and be all like, _'Hey, I like this book, but do you have it in grey?'_ That would just be stupid.

Another thing he liked about the library was the lack of people. Not many students seemed to like hanging out in the library after school, so he didn't have to worry much about being bothered by others. All the other students he could see looked to probably be using the library as a solace from some of the more intimidating classmates. That's why it grabbed his attention so well when someone sat down across from him.

It was the blondie. And he was smoking again. How did he even get cigarettes onto the grounds? "So, has Nami-chwan gotten a chance to 'talk' to ya yet?"

Ace nodded suspiciously. "Yeah, her and Luffy both. Why, you friends with them?"

The blond smirked at him. "You could say that." He stuck out his hand to shake. "The name's Sanji. You are?"

"Ace. I'm guessing you were the one who told them I was new, huh?" he asked as he shook Sanji's hand. Sanji simply hummed in response.

"So what are ya doing in the library? Only losers actually spend time in the shitty library."

"_You're _in the library," Ace shot back.

Sanji smirked at him again. "Yeah, but _I_ followed _you_ here." _That cocky bastard._

"Why are you following me around? Have you become my stalker?"

"Nah," Sanji took another mouthful of smoke. It crept out from his lips as he said, "I just wanted my own chance to talk to ya."

"Why?" Ace asked.

"Isn't it obvious, you shithead?" Sanji looked at him like he was stupid. "To see what kind of person you are."

It took Ace a second to grasp his meaning. And this time, he had an answer. "I'm not going to snap. They won't break me. I'll prove it."

"I look forward to it."

— — — —

It was official. He was fucking bored.

His homework was finished, he had read the book he got from the library, and he even cleaned his part of the room just to pass time, yet it was only ten to eight. The school curfew wasn't even until ten! His roommates weren't interested in talking to him at all, either. Zoro was already asleep and the other two were engaged in a very strange discussion about socks or something equally ridiculous. He didn't have much to say about the topic, so joining that was a no go. One of them left after announcing he was "taking a piss break," and then he was left with one roommate sleeping and the other studying medical journals while ignoring everything else.

He as good as hopped to the door when someone came knocking, just to ease the boredom for even a minute.

"Oh, hey New Kid," a familiar voice greeted. "What are you doing here?"

"This is where I'm staying," he replied, not bothering to correct Luffy on his name. "What are _you_ doing here?"

"I'm meeting the guys," Luffy explained vaguely. "What are _you_ doing here?"

"This is — I already answered that."

Luffy tilted his head. "Did you? I didn't notice."

Ace just barely resisted the urge to slap his forehead. "I guess you should come in, then."

"Okay, thanks!" The boy trotted past him into the room. He paused for a moment, looked around, then groaned, causing Ace shoot him a curious glance.

"What?"

"Zoro's sleeping and Law's reading which means they'll bash my face in if I bother them," Luffy clarified. He was pouting in a way that made Ace want to laugh.

Ace sat down on his bed and considered briefly. The kid was an annoying little shit, but what the hell. "Well, I'm pretty bored, so if you feel like talking to me — oof!"

"Really? Awesome!" Luffy had clobbered him in a hug and was currently squeezing all the air from his lungs. He pulled back before Ace could start reprimanding him about a little known phenomenon called personal space. "It's been _forever_ since I've talked to you."

"…It was lunch time," Ace contradicted. "Speaking of, you ran off before I got to thank you."

"Oh?" Luffy noised confusedly. "For what?"

"For the sandwich you gave me. That was really nice of you, you know."

"Ah," He pushed his fist against his palm in remembrance. "_That's_ why my afternoon snack was missing. I was _so_ hungry!"

This time, Ace actually did chuckle at the distraught look on his face. "I'll make it up to you someday."

Luffy perked up at that. "You promise?"

"Promise," he said, and the grin he got in return came across as a bit more wicked than he would have liked.

"I'll hold you to that," Luffy confirmed. "How was your first Session?"

"Better than I expected," Ace admitted. "I have this guy called Marco for a counsellor, he's pretty cool."

"Ooh, _lucky_! Marco's one of the really, **really **nice ones. I had him once, but they moved me because I kept getting distracted."

"By what?" Marco's room had looked pretty plain. Though it was a little less grey than the rest of the school, little splashes of light blue here and there, there was certainly nothing glaringly distracting about it.

"By Marco's head!" Luffy declared dramatically, throwing his arms wide. "It looks like a pineapple!"

"It… does." Ace blinked, thinking back on it. "How come I didn't notice that?"

Luffy was laughing at _him_ now. Ouch. "You know, I hope you're right. I like you."

"Hope I'm right about what?"

"What you told Sanji," he explained, and Ace nodded in recognition. He didn't bother to wonder why Luffy knew the context of his earlier conversation. "But I want to know; who?"

"Come again?" Ace raised an eyebrow.

"You said you would prove you wouldn't break," Luffy leaned closer, "but who are you proving it to?"

And once again he didn't have an answer. But he was lucky, because the way Luffy was grinning impishly suggested he didn't care whether he answered or not. That, and someone else came through the door at that second.

"Hey Luffy," Nami greeted. Her eyes landed on Ace. "Wait, he's here too?"

"Yeah, what _is_ he doing here?" Luffy asked.

"I told you, I—"

"He's our new roommate," a voice said. They all looked over to see that Zoro had woken up. "Does it matter? We have things to get to today."

"Not until everyone's here," Nami dictated.

From his seat on his bed, Ace silently watched the gathered individuals bicker with each other. They were more entertaining than you would think, what with some of the absolutely ludicrous statements they made. From what he could gather from a couple of casual remarks, they were having a meeting that included the three of them, Sanji, and Law, as well as somebody they called 'Bepo.' Two unnamed others were participating too for a yet unknown reason.

Watching them, he couldn't help but muse about the reasons they could be at the Institute. On the surface they looked to be just normal people, if a little peculiar. He couldn't imagine what they could have done that was so bad as to land them here. Zoro was rebellious, sure, but he seemed more absent-minded and short-tempered than violent or spiteful. Nami was cold and in control, but she seemed more like the Alpha Girl that belongs in a public high school than a leader of felons. And Luffy was just a dumbass.

During his musing period four more people arrived. The first was an extremely tall, extremely pale teen who wore a white earflap hat over his white hair. Every part of him seemed as if it was coated in powdered sugar, he was so pale. His skin was as white as flour and his hair was just the same. His eyes, however, were cherry red, and if Ace had to guess he would say the boy was an albino. At some point his third roommate, Kidd, returned, and after him a pink-haired girl with strangely bug-like eyes entered. A minute or two later Sanji came in to join the group. Everyone started to settle down at that point, like they were ready to start, and Law even put his book down. No one paid any attention to Ace as he continued observing, even though they obviously knew about his presence. Luffy was still sitting next to him, after all.

Most of their words remained as simple dull buzzing in his ears. He didn't bother listening enough to find out what they were discussing; it wasn't his business, after all. Besides, he was suddenly tired. His mind was drifting in and out and he couldn't be bothered to concentrate on anything. He was still fighting to keep himself awake when a sudden plethora of yelling shocked his eyes all the way open.

"There's no way!"

"That's crazy!"

"What kind of a shitty idea is _that_, anyways?"

"Why would you even suggest that?"

"I actually think it's a pretty good idea."

"Law, don't start taking the idiot's side, or soon enough you'll be an idiot yourself."

"I mean, think about it," Law clarified. "What Luffy said actually makes some sense. For once."

Nami crossed her arms over her chest. "Oh really? Care to elaborate?"

"Just **look** at him." Law gestured to Ace, who immediately realised they were talking about him. "He's a little bit too _normal_ for this place, isn't he?"

Ace wasn't entirely sure whether he should take offense or not when the assembled company glanced him over and nodded.

"He's completely boring," Sanji agreed, and Ace _certainly_ took offense to that. Before he could raise objections, however, he continued, "And yet the shithead's fond of him already." Seven pairs of eyes turned to Luffy. "Why?"

Luffy snickered again his bizarre laugh. "Why do you think?"

"…So you think this is a good idea?" Nami questioned. Ace noted her watching him apprehensively from the corner of her eye, and abruptly, he couldn't take it any longer.

"What?" The entire room's attention was brought to him. "What's a good idea?"

"Get ready for tomorrow, New Kid." Luffy reached over to pat him on the back. "It's going to be a big day for you."

— — — —

The couch in Marco's office was really fucking soft. Soft as in, Ace didn't know there _existed_ couches that soft. Of course, it might just be because he was exhausted, but at the moment he really wanted to fall asleep on the softness that was that couch.

"What's with you today?" he heard Marco's voice ask. "Didn't you sleep last night?"

"Not at all," Ace replied, slightly muffled by the cushion he didn't bother to raise his head from. "My roommates had some friends over late, and then I couldn't sleep after that either…"

"Any reason why?"

"I was too focused on what happens today," he responded without thinking.

Marco raised an eyebrow. "What happens today?"

"That's the problem!" Ace sat bolt upright very suddenly. "I have no idea! But Luffy told me it was going to be big, and…"

"…And if Luffy says it's going to be big, you know it's going to be positively **insane**," Marco concluded. "That kid really is a basket case. He used to be one of my charges, you know, but he always did this thing where he would stare at me for the entire time and not hear anything I said to him."

"He said it's because your head looks like a pineapple."

"My head does _not_—"

"It does. It totally does," Ace contradicted. "The only way you could look anymore like a pineapple is if you dyed your hair green. People could mistake you for their lunch in the cafeteria. You could go to Hawaii and—"

"_Anyway_," Marco interrupted, "head in the clouds, that one. How'd you meet him, anyway?"

So Ace told him about that first day in the cafeteria, when Luffy gave him a sandwich and Nami interrogated him with the same questions on the Institute's compulsory examination sheet, except replacing 'infraction' with 'favourite colour,' at which point Marco had donned an expression that told of epiphany. They talked about the various people Ace had met until the end of their time.

When Ace left Marco's office, Zoro and Luffy were there to greet him. He didn't have time to question it before they each grabbed one of his arms and frog-marched him away.

— — — —

"_What_ are we _doing_?" Ace hissed through secure teeth.

Luffy gave him a luminous grin. "We're leaving."

The five of them — Luffy, Kidd, Law, Zoro, and Ace — stood on top of the grey walls separating the Institute from the outside world. They were so high up Ace was sure he would touch a cloud if he so much as raised a hand above his head. If he dared to glance over the side, the smooth, sleek, slippery-looking side, the vertigo would certainly kill him, if the ludicrousness of the situation didn't first.

"How do you expect to get to the ground from here?" he demanded.

Zoro rolled his eyes. "Ugh, this guy sounds like Nami."

"Not to worry," Law assured with a cloying, mawkish smile. "Friends of Luffy's are taking care of it for us."

At that moment these friends of Luffy's happened to show themselves — or at least, made their presence on the ground known. Some sort of hook bobbed up from over the side and latched itself onto the building.

_Oh dear Banjo, __**please**__ don't let that be what I think it is._

"There's our ticket out," Kidd announced, and Ace felt something very cold sink from his chest into his stomach. _I really hope that wasn't my heart._

"Wait," Ace held up a hand, "I am _not_ riding a flimsy rope all the way down there! That's crazy!"

Kidd shrugged. "If you're not comfortable with it, you could always take the other way down."

"There's another way down?" His relief was so strong they could probably feel it in Antarctica.

"Yeah, sure. I'll show you."

The relief washed away and was replaced by terror as Kidd clenched the front of his shirt in a fist, forced him over to the edge and let him dangle off it, supported by nothing else but Kidd's unreliable grip on the fabric of his uniform.

"If you don't want to go down the rope, you can always just fall."

Ace choked a little as his collar pressed painfully into his neck.

"R-rope," he sputtered. "I'll — I'll take the rope."

Kidd pulled him back onto the top of the wall easily, and Ace grabbed his knees while gasping for breath. By the time he had fully recovered, Kidd and Zoro had already gone down the rope.

Ace watched the next person go down, looking for clues as to how the _hell _he was supposed to do this, because he had never done anything like it before in his life.

Law just grabbed the rope and repelled down it without a care, which really didn't help Ace in the long run.

"Your turn," Luffy told him impatiently. "Hurry up, I want to go!"

"Why don't you just go next then? I don't mind!"

"I can't," he pouted. "If we leave you to last you might run away while we're not looking."

"Great," Ace muttered. "I guess I'm going, then."

He reached down low to take the rope, trying his hardest not to lose his footing before he had a good grip on it. When he got his hands on it he tightened his hold for all he was worth and carefully swung his legs down to grip the rope as securely as possible, praising himself for his agility.

Now the only problem was how to move.

A good deal of time later, he had actually made it down a length of the rope, slowly but surely.

Actually, he was still gripping that rope like a baby would a bottle, loosening his hold only long enough to let himself slide maybe ten scant centimetres before he stopped again.

Above him, Luffy was clearly losing his patience. "Come on! Can't you go any faster?"

"Well I would if I could!" he called back, sliding another ten centimetres. "I'm totally new to this, if it isn't obvious!"

"I'll show you," the younger offered, and Ace felt a chill go down the back of his neck at the inadvertent likeness to Kidd's offer to _show him_ the other way down.

Luffy sunk down the rope with a practised ease, somehow coming eye-level with Ace. He hooked his legs firmly around the elder's waist.

"What are you _doing_?"

"Sorry, but you're going to have to support my weight for a while." Luffy actually _let go of the fucking rope_ and sure enough, Ace felt the dip as the entirety of his weight was entrusted to him. The nut job then reached down and wrapped his now free spidery fingers around Ace's thighs. "First off, relax your legs a little." Ace compliantly slackened slightly, letting Luffy take over, since he was the more experienced one of the two. He immediately felt the strain increase slightly in his hands and upper arms, but ignored it. "Not that loose! …Too tight again. Ugh, we're never going to get anything done this way! Here, let me…" He nudged and tugged at Ace's thighs, practically kneading them until they reached what Luffy deemed perfect tautness. "There! Now about your hands—" He took some of the burden off Ace with one of his hands, but also took one of Ace's own hands and brought it to cover his mouth. "Do this, because you really need to stop making noise before we get caught." Ace could feel his face growing hot under the strain. "Now let go."

Ace didn't consider it. He just did it, feeling blissfully relieved to no longer have the burden of keeping them up one-handed — that is, until he realised they were falling.

Faster and faster they plummeted; Luffy looked as if he were having the time of his life, and Ace was glad for the hand covering his lips, as it kept his stomach from flying out his mouth.

He shut his eyes and tried to ignore the fact that he was probably about to die, focusing on the raucous wind whistling in his ears and the light pressure of Luffy's chin digging into his shoulder. He knew trying to grab the rope again at the speed they were going would only give him rope-burn and maybe a little whiplash, so he used his free hand to fist the fabric of Luffy's shirt. _We are going to fucking die._

"…New kid? You can open your eyes now."

Hesitantly, his eyes creaked open. Zoro, Law, Kidd, and some unfamiliar boy with a long nose were all looking at him as if he were a loon. Of course, that might just be because of how desperately he was clinging to Luffy, who was most likely certifiable. Luffy, seeing his eyes open, promptly let go of the rope again and let the two of them tumble to the ground, Luffy on top.

"When did we stop?" Ace asked blearily, letting Luffy roll off of him.

"Not too long ago," Luffy assured.

"If you're done lazing down there," Kidd spat impatiently, "we have a…" He stopped himself with a passing glance at Ace. "…An event to get to."

— — — —

The café was warm, empty, and permeated by the scent of freshly baked bread. The green-haired woman — a much darker green than Zoro's — behind the counter had been startled by their entrance, but that soon gave way to the air of an overwrought mother as she admonished Luffy for 'dragging fresh meat into one of your messes.' To her scoldings, Luffy had simply told her, with a laugh, that he didn't plan on it tonight, and mightn't she let Ace stay at the café while he took care of business? Ace was a little flabbergasted by the obvious respect he showed the woman.

And then Luffy, along with Zoro, Kidd, and Law, had left him there with Long-Nose.

"My name isn't long-nose," Long-Nose protested for the fourth time. "It's Usopp. Call me Usopp."

"Not until you tell me why I'm here, _Long-Nose_." He was frustrated and the food the woman who'd won Luffy's respect — Makino — had prepared for them both did nothing to placate him. "They drag me out of that school just so they can leave me behind? It's bullshit, is what it is."

"It's _tradition_, is what it is," Long-Nose corrected.

"Oh? _Tradition?_" His voice may have had more venom than necessary, but he didn't really care enough to limit it.

Long-Nose nodded. "That's right! Every time there's a new kid someone of the group takes a shine to, they take 'em to town. Except, instead of taking their usual exit, they drag 'em down the same rope we used to use before discovering that certain, opportune way in and out."

"So we _didn't_ have to take the rope?"

"Of course you do!" Long-N— Usopp seemed affronted. "Didn't you just hear me? It's tradition."

"Is leaving me alone with you part of this tradition?" Ace drawled.

"Nah." Usopp shrugged. "It's just that your day on the town happened to coincide with something they'd already scheduled. What _is_ tradition, though, is the detention."

"…The detention?"

"It's no biggie." He swatted at the air languidly. "They'll get you a detention somehow when you get back to the Institute. Not too much, only enough for a level one or two punishment; enough to give you a taste of consequence."

The oxygen of his lungs rushed to escape his throat. They were going to get him in trouble on purpose? He thought they liked him. "Well," he managed to say relatively normally, considering the lack of breath to fuel his words, "thanks for warning me."

— — — —

He figured that, knowing their plans, he could avoid the detention, in whatever way he could. However, since the 'fearsome foursome' was apparently going to be staying in town quite late, Usopp had directed him through a passageway he said was the sure-fire method to get back in. On the other side, he found himself facing a small congregation of staff members.

"What are you doing here?" the tallest man, who had the most distracting chin, prominent eyebrows, and by God, that _chin,_ growled. "This area is for staff only."

His eyes darted around the room quickly. He took note of the gruff-looking man almost resembling a demon, who glared at him, the woman with red hair falling in her eyes, who took a good look at the fear on his face and licked her lips in anticipation, the blonde wearing sunglasses, whose features remained schooled and unchanging, though with a hint of disapproval, and Mr Saldeath, who watched the proceedings disinterestedly.

"I- I'm lost," the words stumbled over each other. "I'm new, y-you see—"

"It doesn't matter if you're lost, you're still out after curfew." Ace winced at that one; they had him there. "Detention, level one."

It was a shame, really. He'd hoped that he'd at least manage to scrape up a better record here than he had had at his old school, but it seemed Luffy and his friends thought otherwise.

Moreover, who was he to argue with tradition?

— — — —

Detention had an entire building dedicated to itself. The ground floor was an office, but below that, descending into the ground, there were multiple basements, all converted into detention rooms. The further down an individual was sent, the harsher the severity of their crime.

Level one was nauseating.

It smelt like paint fumes and misery, a misery Ace wanted to be put out of. The floor was damp with something he couldn't identify even if he had wanted to, which seeped stalwartly into his shoes. The same substance coated the bench he sat upon, which was cold, hard, thin metal and dug into his leg so sharply he was sure it could rip skin. There were many surfaces here sharp enough to cut, and he'd already sliced himself twice in his short stay.

A girl with pink hair, a different girl than the Perona he'd met with bug-like eyes, sat next to him suddenly, paying no mind as her thighs began to drip with crimson.

"You're the guy, then?" she mused, looking him over appraisingly. "The guy Luffy likes, that is. Ace, was it?"

He nodded. She gave an unruly grin and named herself, Bonney, in response.

She flicked her eyes down to his hand. "Gored your fist, didja? Don't worry too much about it, the first-aid kit in your dorm'll have bandages."

Ace, for one, was loath to show weakness, so tried to tuck the wound out of sight, but it didn't matter much since Bonney had already seen it. "You, ah, friends with Luffy's crowd, then?"

"I am, that." She pulled a pack of bubblegum from her pocket, threw one in her mouth and offered him to take one, which he did. It was, oddly, banana flavoured. "When I heard Luffy was taking you out tonight, I made sure to get meself in a tad of trouble to meecha."

"Ah," he tried to noise in understanding, but it came out slightly garbled through the gum. "So, Luffy and them… What do they want about me, anyhow?"

"Who really knows?" Ace figured it must have come with practice, her ability to speak so clearly while still chewing at the same time. "Probably just Loony Luffy with his whims again."

"Does it happen often, that he makes friends this way?"

"Does it ever," she confirmed. "Most of his bestest friends he made on whims."

The blood from his cut was staining his shirt with the same crimson running down Bonney's legs, but he didn't give it any heed. "Is that my fate, now? To be one of them?"

"If you're lucky. If you're not, you'll end up like Caribou."

"Who?"

"Caribou — he tried getting close to them, but Luffy decided he didn't like him. He disappeared one night and no one ever heard from him again."

"So… I'll be friends with them, or I'll get 'lost'?"

"Pretty much, yeah."

"Great," he mumbled. "I love an easy choice."

— — — —

He was pretty sure Nami had robbed someone, possibly a lot of someones. Zoro and Sanji were probably involved in gang activity or street fights. Perona held herself like a serial killer, and Law might have been a drug dealer of some sort. Of course, it was all merely speculation.

A week after the detention, Ace knew them better than he had ever hoped he would. Without having to ask, he could pinpoint the most likely offence that had gotten them enrolled in the Institute for all of them.

All of them, except Luffy.

Sure, he knew by now that Luffy wasn't exactly as innocuous as he'd first thought, being very much a trouble maker and with an almost malicious streak when he was well and truly angry, but observing him as he was, no specific crime came to Ace's mind.

It was only his second trip to town with the group, but, watching the lot of them making their way through the little shop's merchandise long after it had closed, he felt it was a lot more familiar to him than it should be.

"Are you just going to sit there?" The subject of his thoughts appeared in front of him, wearing a pair of sunglasses that weren't his. "Or are you going to join us?"

"I shouldn't," he managed, though he knew it was pointless to protest if it was something Luffy wanted. The younger teen had a way of never letting anyone dissatisfy him, after all, and Ace knew he'd be dancing to the boy's wants not too long from then. "_You_ shouldn't. This is breaking and entering! What about — what about the security cameras?"

"Nami already took them out," Luffy stated with a look that clearly told Ace that anything he could say would be in vain. "Come on and join the fun already!"

"I won't." _He would_. If Luffy had anything to say about it, he would. 'No' simply wasn't an acceptable answer, not where that godforsaken, enigmatically cheerful boy was concerned.

Luffy made a slight hum of discontent as the older averted his gaze. "Your favourite colour is orange, right?" Ace scarcely had time to drag his eyes up again, and they were only at Luffy's knees when something made of fabric was pushed onto his head. Two fingers scraped the bottom of his chin and forced his head upwards, to see Luffy peaking eagerly at him over the top rims of the sunglasses. "It looks great on you."

"What…" He had no mind to continue his query, as his raised hand brushed against the brim of whatever was on his head. A hat of some kind?

"Come see for yourself!" He somehow managed to pull Ace to his feet in one fluid tug, though he was much smaller. "There's a mirror just down this wall, I saw."

Belatedly, taking in the sight of the bright orange Stetson with a band of red beads sitting atop his skull, he realised that exactly what he was expecting to happen had indeed come to pass.

"It… It does look good, I guess," he admitted.

Nami glanced towards the two of them from her spot rummaging through the register. "Are you going to keep it?"

"…That's stealing," he wavered, a little ashamed of how little his conscience had to say about the whole affair.

She snorted, pocketing some of the store's funds at the same time. "So what? When people see our uniforms, they _expect_ us to do bad things like steal. So why not?" Nami grabbed a string of red beads that matched the ones on his hat — _the_ hat, _the_ hat — and threw them around his neck. "Who are we to disappoint them?"

— — — —

"What's that you got?"

Ace looked up from the envelope in his grasp to Luffy, who sat next to him at the cafeteria table. "It's a letter."

"Let me see it." He snatched it and tore the seal open quickly, and Ace knew better than to tell him no. Luffy scanned the contents once before his face turned hard, he then handed it to Sanji, who had an analogous reaction.

While Sanji refolded and tucked the letter into his pocket, Luffy took his hand and dragged him away.

— — — —

The two of them had taken him from the cafeteria and brought him all the way back to the dormitory building, where they were leading him around the still-grey sixth floor. Ace almost thought they were taking him to room 613, his room, but just prior to reaching it Luffy took a sharp turn into the next door over, the one named September.

"Your room is next to mine?" Ace blinked at his surroundings, spotting revelatory possessions, like Luffy's straw-hat on the wall and a pack of Sanji's favourite cigarettes on the tabletop, that gave away whose room it was.

"Yeah," one of them muttered, though he wasn't entirely certain which, as it was too quiet to really hear a distinctive voice. They herded him over to the bunk beds and bid him to sit down; when he did, Luffy immediately crawled into his lap.

"What are you doing?"

"It's his own way…" Sanji sounded parched when he spoke. He swallowed a couple times before continuing, "…of comforting ya."

"Comforting me? Of what?"

"Of this." Sanji handed him back his letter.

He began to read around Luffy, slightly irritated for the obstruction, feeling Sanji throw an arm around his back and wondering what on Earth this could be about. But all of a sudden he was very grateful for the arm keeping him steady and the lump of Luffy between him and the words as the emotional damn broke.

"Oh, Mum," he murmured into his hands. "Oh, god, _Mum_, she's—"

"We know," Luffy soothed. He shifted a little closer, and Ace could feel the boy's nose pressing into his trachea. "You don't have to say it."

"—her and her sister Anne, they're both—"

"We _know_."

"—i-in a train ac-ccident—"

"_Shut up, Ace_," Luffy hissed. "We fucking _know_. You don't have to tell us what we already know. Calm down and shut up; you're not the type to talk about your problems and I _know_ that."

Ace was surprised at that. It was true, he never liked talking about his problems, but wasn't it the usual thing to do? When someone had a problem, for their friends to say, 'you can tell me all about it,' and if they didn't speak at first to pressure them into it? That's what he's always seen, experienced before. 'You can tell me. It'll do you good to talk about it. Please, tell me.' But Luffy was telling him the opposite, letting him have what he really wanted — someone who already knew; someone who wouldn't make him struggle to speak through the pain.

Someone who would just let him cry, wordlessly, on their shoulder.

— — — —

"How was the funeral?" Marco questioned soberly.

Ace took a deep breath of the relatively fresh air in Marco's office, half as a comfort, half as a delay. "…It wasn't _bad_, I suppose. I tried not to focus too much on what people were saying." He twitched as a certain memory came back to him. "I did see my cousin, though. That wasn't fun."

"Don't get on with your cousin, then?"

"Not a lick. Him and his stupid goatee," he muttered. "I like — liked Aunt Anne just fine, but her son is just a bastard. ...I think he's staying with some friends of his," Ace nattered on, words jumping directly from his mind to his tongue with little sense for coherency or continuity, a habit he'd formed as he searched for things to say to Marco during his Sessions. "Kaku, I think. I don't know, really, we try to stay out of each other's lives as much as we can. Makes me wonder where I'm going to go… if it's really possible to get out of here."

Marco regarded him almost sadly for a moment and, after a second of deliberation, took a ballpoint from his pen cup and a leaf of paper from a drawer in his desk. "Look, Ace, you're a good kid. A better kid than the ones I usually get stuck with, all short-tempered and troubled as they are." At this, Ace wanted to protest that he _was_ short-tempered and troubled, he just hid it more effectively, but thought it best to hold his tongue. "And I really don't want to see this world screw you over. If you ever find yourself with no place to go, or in some other deep trouble, I want you to call this number."

The scrawled name and stream of numbers barely took up a single line of the leaf Marco handed him, but it was harder to lose than a post-it. "Edward Newgate?" he read.

Marco nodded. "Promise me you won't lose that. If you keep hanging around with Luffy, you're going to need it some time or another."

The leaf was folded and tucked safely into a pocket. "I will."

— — — —

Luffy had brought him to this bar to give him some time outside the Institute — and, if he so wished, to drown his sorrows for a night. Ace didn't want to drink quite _that_ much, but he was no man to turn down the occasional offer of alcohol. He sipped slowly and steadily from his glass, enjoying the liquor, but nearly backwashed it all when he heard Luffy say to the bartender, "Could I have a replacement drink? This one's been drugged."

"It is? How can you tell?" the bartender asked.

Ace's head swivelled to look at Luffy as the boy pointed to his piña colada. "You see that there? Those are the chemicals from the drug mixing up with my drink. It's cloudy and kind of discoloured."

As the bartender went to create another cocktail, Ace turned his inquiries on Luffy. "Does that happen to you often?"

"Often enough," he replied softly, not meeting Ace's eyes.

Ace stopped at that, deciding to respect the other's boundaries as best he could. As he went back to his mug, he couldn't help but see the disappointed scowl across the room, adorning the face of a blond man with a scar diagonally on the right side of his forehead.

He wasn't really sure how long later it was that aforementioned blond man sauntered over and did something one might have suspected was an attempt of flirting with Luffy.

It was utter crap and Ace didn't bother to remember what was said between the three of them, but he remembered who threw the first punch (himself) and what happened afterwards (chaos).

He took Luffy by the wrist and, completely missing the call of "Ace?" behind them, steered him to a more secluded part of the bar away from the brawl.

"Are you okay?" he breathed.

"I'm fine," Luffy clipped. "I can take care of myself, you know. I don't need to be babied."

"That's not what I — _shit_! Listen." He stepped closer to Luffy, who was leaning against the wall, and grabbed him by the shoulders. "Look at me and listen. We're friends now, right? It was _your_ own decision. And that means I'm not just going to sit by and let some pervert put his grubby hands all over you! Get it?"

Luffy bit the inside of his cheek and nodded, pouting in a way that made Ace feel something unidentified and a little bit primal surge within him.

He didn't know what had possessed his body in that moment, but rather out of the blue he realised their lips were slowly getting closer and neither was objecting.

"Ace?" the same voice from before ventured, causing him to jump back abruptly. "Is that you?"

"…Ah, it is. Who's…" As the figure came into focus, Ace made a sputtering sound of joyous surprise. "_Sabo_? Dude!"

"Hey!"

While they stepped forward to embrace each other in a platonic, manly way, Luffy quirked his head at Sabo in askance.

"Who's this?"

"Oh, right." Ace pulled out of the hug to present Sabo to Luffy. "Luffy, this is Sabo. We were best friends, but he moved away a couple years ago and I haven't seen him since. Sabo, this is Luffy, he's a friend of mine from my new school."

"A great pleasure to meet you," Sabo quipped cheerily, but Luffy didn't appear impressed. He either didn't notice or ignored it, though, and turned back to Ace. "It's really been a while, huh? I almost didn't recognise you! Let's catch up soon — how's tomorrow?"

Ace gave a glance to Luffy, who stared disinterestedly at Sabo, and nearly swallowed his tongue. "I, ah, I don't know if you've heard, but I, well, I go to the Institute now."

"…Seriously? How'd that happen?"

"After you left, I didn't really have anyone to reign me in and I wound up in more trouble than ever." He gave a noncommittal shrug. "I _swear_ it was all a misunderstanding, though."

"And how are you here? I thought that place didn't let students leave the grounds—"

"We snuck out," Luffy cut in. "But we can't be sneaking out every night."

"I get it." Sabo nodded grimly. "Whenever's the next time you can see me will be fine."

"Two weeks Saturday," Luffy offered immediately, grinning his usual wicked grin. "We'll be there."

The rendezvous details were written in pencil on the same paper with Newgate's number on it before Sabo had to slip away.

"By the way," he called over his shoulder as he went, looking pointedly at Ace's orange Stetson, "nice hat."

— — — —

"…I'm sorry," Ace apologised, not paying attention to the grey doors of the sixth floor they walked between.

Luffy's eyes flicked up to his momentarily. "Sorry for what?"

"Back there, in the bar…" He wet his dry lips. "I think I tried to kiss you."

Luffy gave something somewhere between a dry scoff and a barking laugh. The effect was somewhat striking. "I'm not upset with you for _that_."

"Still, I shouldn't have done it," Ace continued, searching for a way to articulate the reasons why so maybe he could convince himself as well, once again disturbed by the silence of his little voice on the matter. In his haste to rationalise, he gave little heed to Luffy shutting the door behind them as they entered the bedroom. "You're three whole years younger than me, and — and it was right after some jerk propositioned you, and I had had a bit, maybe a bit too much, to drink and—"

"I'm not upset with you," Luffy repeated. "If anything, I'm upset with that friend of yours for interrupting."

Ace stammered as Luffy drew what should have been uncomfortably close, but felt too sublime for him to say so honestly. His vision flitted about, trying to look anywhere but those intense dark eyes, and he finally registered by the visual clues that he'd been led into Luffy's room, rather than his own. "Y-you're still just a kid."

"I'm not a kid," Luffy whispered, pushing him gently down into the bed. "I'll prove to you I'm not."

"But Sanji—" he tried feebly.

"Never spends the night here," he was assured. He wasn't sure if it helped or not. "He's always off with some girl."

"T-this is _wrong_."

"But you don't really think it is, do you?"

And how could he dissent to that? When there he was, wondering just what made it wrong. When it felt so right, how could it be wrong? When that body looked so tempting, prone and flawless in the moonlight, how could it be wrong? When legs cinched around his waist, quivering only slightly but enough to feel it in his hipbones, how could it be wrong? And when Luffy moaned and mewled and made noises like a wild dog, how could it be wrong?

He didn't think it was possible for anything so perfect to be wrong.

— — — —

They continued to meet in the room named September that way for the next two weeks — although, they never again went quite as far as they did the first night.

Sure, they talked, and kissed, and cuddled on the bed, and sometimes their hands were everywhere all at once, but they never repeated that first magical experience. Not yet.

It was one of those nights, cosy by Luffy's side, that Ace did something so incredibly stupid, simply in the sake of an old curiosity.

"Why are you here?" his words slurred slightly, heavy with tiredness.

Luffy remained quiet, and for a second Ace was certain he would react badly — to yell, to force Ace to leave, to never speak to him with the same familiarity again. But Luffy was never that kind of person, and he really should have realised so sooner as Luffy's expression of surprise became his roguish grin. "Arson. You?"

Ace knew he should have kept his mouth shut from the beginning. He knew he should be careful with his words, just say something vague, and everything would work itself out. But Luffy had this thing about plans — he always made them not go the way they were supposed to. So when Ace opened his mouth, he heard his voice spill out, "I brought a gun to school."

If Luffy had a reaction to that, he didn't see it. He was dozing a second later.

— — — —

Luffy's elbow dug into his stomach. "I see him! Over there!"

Ace followed his pointer finger, and sure enough, there was Sabo. They waved him over.

"So, gentlemen," Sabo began, "what are we going to do tonight?"

Luffy rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "Ace, are you pondering what I'm pondering?"

"I think so, Luffy, but where are we going to find a duck and a hose at this hour?"

The three burst out in childish giggles.

"But really," Luffy was the third to collect himself, but the first to speak. "It's a surprise."

They followed the younger boy curiously as he led them through alleyways and darkened roads, but Ace's eyes widened when he saw where they'd been taken.

"Isn't this — wasn't this my school?"

"That it is," Luffy confirmed. His voice sounded distant, and Ace turned his head to see the boy already jimmying a window open.

"What are you _doing_?"

"I'm going in." The window was wide now, and Luffy slipped through it easily, even with the bulky backpack he was carrying. "Problem?"

"This is stupid," Ace warned half-heartedly, but crawled through after him anyway.

Sabo, hesitantly, pulled himself in behind them. "This really seems like a bad idea."

"Oh, Luffy's full of bad ideas," Ace clapped his old friend on the shoulder. "He's just good at making you think they aren't."

The ground was half-covered by a round, oriental rug. His eyes followed the floor to where it met the pastel blue walls, which held many mahogany shelves of books, and —

Oh.

It was the principal's office.

And _god_ he still hated that lone wooden chair. Luffy seemed content to stay in this room, currently lying on the rug and examining it and the chair in greater detail than Ace could ever stand to, so he plopped himself on the leather chair and span around a couple times.

"Guys," Sabo spoke up almost timidly, and Ace could read his compunctions effortlessly, them being so similar to his own at one point. "I don't think we should be here."

"But we have comfy chairs," Ace pointed out casually.

"We don't _need_ comfy chairs," Sabo protested. "We need to get out of here."

Ace snickered. "Made you say comfy chairs."

"Relax, guy," Luffy beseeched. He was going through the principal's filing cabinets now, pulling out manila folders like the one Ace knew Marco had about him. "We're just looking for now."

Sabo seemed slightly placated at this — only slightly — but he tensed as he watched Luffy start to stack the manilas on the wooden chair. "What do you think you're doing?"

"Oh, I know what I'm doing." Luffy took down some of the books as he said this, throwing them into the pile as well. "You could say I have experience."

"Experience," Sabo reiterated.

"Yup," the younger replied cheerily. "I think I was about twelve the first time I did this — burned down my own house with my grandpa in it."

"Did he die?" Ace asked, sounding a little too unconcerned for Sabo's liking.

"He deserved it. …But anyway, no one ever caught on that I did that — they saw me as a victim. So I moved on to other bastards, all deserving. Rapists and druggies and insurance frauders, that ilk. Probably 'cause Gramps' talk about 'justice' was affecting me, but I dunno. They finally caught me at it last year, when I was putting explosives around this guy called Crocodile's mansion."

Ace merely thought this was par for the course with Luffy, but Sabo felt sickened. "Y-you mean you're going to _burn the school down_? _Why_?"

"Well — help me with this, would you?" Ace stood and helped Luffy push the heavy cherry wood desk towards his kindling. "Ace must have really hated this place, right? Else he wouldn't have planned a shooting."

Ace frowned disapprovingly. "That isn't what the gun was for."

"Gun?" Sabo looked between Ace and Luffy, horrified. "_Shooting_?"

"…That was the misunderstanding I mentioned. A gun fell out of my bag at school, people saw and — started jumping to conclusions." He watched Luffy wheel the leather chair over and arrange it with the rest he'd collected.

Before Sabo could get another shocked word in, Luffy directed them, "You two best get outside now and wait for me there." Neither of them had to ask why when the boy produced a container of gasoline from his backpack.

They both scampered out the still gaping window. A minute later, Luffy joined them, container in hand. He took an apple red lighter from his pocket and set his framework alight.

Surveying the flames, Ace knew Sabo was appalled — maybe even traumatised — by what they'd done, and the little voice inside his head was finally saying words, but he didn't care enough to find out what they were.

"So… You _weren't_ planning on… on shooting your classmates, right?" Sabo ventured nervously.

"No." Ace kept his eyes on the sky, where the licking tendrils of fire met the stars. Most of them were blotted out by the burning light, but those that weren't created fascinating still points of white in the dance of red against black. At a susurrus, almost swept from his lips by the crackling before reaching their ears, he admitted, "Just myself."

They stayed there like that, watching the sparks intermix with those stars bright enough to shine through, and did not flee when they heard the sirens.

— — — —

Ace wondered only briefly why the staff area evoked such a strange sense of déjà vu, but then he remembered the day he'd met Usopp and been set up for detention. The difference now was that he wasn't alone, Luffy and Sabo were by his side, and the staff who had been sitting at the table last time were presently in the next room over, actively discussing their punishment.

He didn't like the nearly unnoticeable reaction Luffy had given when the blonde woman had mentioned detention, level six, as an option, which hadn't made a great deal of sense at first until he recalled the pain of level one, and the rumours that the levels worsened as they went downwards.

Sabo was to be transferred to the Institute on principle, of course, and the staff had decided it punishment enough, just this once. Luffy and him, though, were likely to be scheduled for execution.

Remembering his first detention might actually be the only thing he was capable of in this room, as it seemed to take up a great deal of the thoughts produced by it. It was rather a lucky thing for him in some respects, as he remembered what exactly got him the detention in the first place.

He stood silently, glad that they idiotically hadn't left anyone behind to keep an eye on them, and motioned for Sabo and Luffy to follow. They obliged, and he guided them through the passageway Usopp had showed him that went directly from the staff area to the outside world.

— — — —

"Nice idea, you _dumbass,_" Sabo complained. "You know you only delayed things. They're going to be angry — we're going to be in even _more _trouble than we already were!"

Luffy, however, was smiling at him almost pridefully, and Ace wanted to kiss him again — no, wanted to be kissed _by_ him again — but didn't, mindful of Sabo.

"We can get away if we really try," Luffy claimed daringly. "If we're gone long enough, they won't be looking all too hard for a trio of nobodies who pissed off some teachers. They'll give up after a while."

"Well unless you have a plan, we're screwed at the moment," Sabo grumbled. "My family would never help me out of something like this, and from your own words, you apparently burned yours to death."

"Probably shouldn't go anywhere we have a strong connection with, they'll look there first," Luffy sounded far too reasonable for his usual madness. "We may have to move around a ton, too, so mobility…"

As Sabo and Luffy discussed plans for long-term, Ace was only thinking about the immediate. _Somewhere to stay when they're in deep trouble_. Where, exactly, had he heard that before?

"Guys," he intervened, bringing out the leaf of paper with not only their plans to meet Sabo written down, but also Edward Newgate's number. "I think I know somewhere we can stay a while."

— — — —

Looking to Newgate — or Oyaji, as he wished to be called — for help turned out to be the best choice they could have made. The old-but-not-doddering man had a large reach among less than reputable circles, and was well practised in keeping secrets.

The three of them had been welcomed warmly, to which Ace and Sabo had felt fairly bashful, but Luffy soaked up the attention and bounced about to meet everyone in ten minutes flat.

The older two got on with Thatch famously, and Luffy had gotten himself into a savage prank war with the equally mischievous Haruta. His were a small measure crueller than hers by nature, but he never went overboard with it, and she seemed pleased to find someone who didn't hold back on her in consideration of her small, elfish stature.

Marco was able to get away from his day job and visit every now and then, but whenever he did, Ace found himself on the end of at least one reproachful stare, though they seemed to be watering down the longer time went on.

Ace regretted, _truly_ regretted, little of the things he'd done. Sometimes, however, it was the small things — like Lucci, his cousin, the very last of his close family left now completely alone, or the friends they'd left at the Institute, who had all gone to sleep expecting to see them again the next morning, or simply lingering grief for his mother and his aunt — that got to him. And when times like those came, Luffy was always there, with a shoulder for crying, lips for kissing, and a body for a whole lot more than that.

Sometimes Luffy was so kind and sweet that Ace thought he might be an angel. But then he would think some more, and realise that if Luffy were anything of the manner his wings would be red and black like soaked in blood and ashes. He'd be a creature that tricked you into thinking it was an angel, only to drag you down into hell with it. Because in reality, the purity Luffy seemed to have just didn't exist.

Ace knew he was already on this deceitful path Luffy offered, as were the rest of their old friends. (With slight remorse, he understood that he might have accidentally enticed Sabo onto the path, too.) Even knowing this, he didn't try to get away. He didn't want to leave the path, as he knew it was his, truly his, to take. He wasn't the only person, nor the first, and certainly not the last, but he had his own part of the path just to himself and Luffy where the feelings were just a little deeper and the nights just a little more exciting.

He knew himself enough to know what he would give for another glimpse of those red and black wings, red and black like the flames and the night, should the privilege be taken from him. And that was okay — Luffy had always intended to have Ace under his thumb this way, and he was the type to get what he wanted no matter the obstacles. Ace felt honoured to know he'd be the one giving Luffy what he wanted for a long time coming.

It was his favourite thing to think about on those nights when he found comfort in sensation, and when it was over, he would think Luffy's sweat-streaked face so beautiful in the lamplight he couldn't resist giving him another kiss as he reached over him to flick off the light.

He would roll over and go back to sleep.

— — — —

A/N: Aaaaand we're done. Finally! P.S. I slipped three references into this, one of a webcomic, one of an animated cartoon, and one of a live action television show. Anyone who can tell me all three instances and their respective sources gets to see the end of the internet (seriously, I'll send you the link).

I'd really like to know everyone's thoughts on this, as it took forever to make, and I poured a lot of work into it. Thanks you guys, I'll see you next time!


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